


Homecoming

by ellerkay



Category: True Blood (TV)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-21
Updated: 2018-07-21
Packaged: 2019-06-14 01:21:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 625
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15377574
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ellerkay/pseuds/ellerkay
Summary: Eric and Godric take a trip to an important location.





	Homecoming

**Author's Note:**

> A brief character piece I wrote way back in 2010, but forgot to put on AO3 when I imported most of my fanfic over a few years ago. I really like the tone of this one.

A man and a boy walked slowly along the banks of the river. The man was tall, nearly twice the height of the boy, and he had long blond hair. The boy’s hair was long, too, but it was nut-brown, caked with dirt, and matted in a few spots with a liquid too dark and thick to be water.  
  
They had disembarked from a small boat in a town a few miles downriver. In rapid Swedish the blond man had explained to the captain that he might not see them again until the next night, but that he should wait for them. He had paid and threatened more than enough to be certain the man would obey, but he was aware that it was the boy’s silent presence by his side that ensured compliance more than his stature or gold. At first glance Eric would be the one to fear, but it was always Godric who drew uneasy glances.  
  
Eric paused, sniffing the air. “Here.” Godric, who had gone on a few paces, stopped and turned.  
  
“Are you sure?”  
  
“I know my own home.”  
  
“It’s been – how long has it been?”  
  
Eric continued to gaze into the distance, but his fingers twitched. “Five hundred years. Since you made me.”  
  
Godric had seen the movement, and he came to stand near Eric, close enough that they were almost touching. “Five hundred years, then. The landscape may have changed.” His eyes roamed the vista in front of them, a large open space giving way to a forest of thick trees. Though it was full dark now, it could be noon to his vampire eyes.  
  
“It is the site where my village once stood.” Eric sounded sure, though he wasn’t, not completely. Godric could tell, where most would not have beheld even the tiniest flicker of doubt.  
  
“Five hundred years,” he repeated, musingly. “How time does fly.”  
  
Eric spared him a sidelong glance, a twitch at the corner of his mouth. “Does it?” It was a joke, of sorts, and Godric smiled appropriately.  
  
Eric walked forward, then stopped suddenly to squat, brushing his fingers over the grass. He picked up a handful of dirt and let it fall slowly from his palm. Godric’s hand was on his shoulder and he almost jumped. His maker was one of the few vampires who could still sneak up on him. He knew Godric had felt a muscle in his shoulder twitch, but it hardly mattered. There was little Eric could hide from him.  
  
“Do you miss it?”  
  
Eric’s hand squeezed involuntarily into a fist, packing the remainder of the dirt. It was only in the last year or so that Godric had begun asking questions like this. He had rarely had any particular interest in Eric’s feelings before, and Eric liked it that way. This new curiosity, the strange notes of compassion in Godric’s voice…They made him uncomfortable.  
  
“No,” he answered, rising abruptly. He turned. “Let’s go.”  
  
“Stop,” Godric commanded, and Eric halted. “We will spend the night here.”  
  
Orders were preferable – familiar and usually easy to follow. But…Eric knew Godric could read his suspicion. Godric gave a half-smile.  
  
“I like this river, and this site where your village once lay,” he said. “I want to sleep in the ground. I have missed it. We have been too long in featherbeds, my friend. We are warriors; we sleep on the earth.”  
  
Eric relaxed, as much as he ever did, and they set off towards the woods again.  
  
“Besides,” Godric added, “every vampire should sleep in his native soil sometime.”  
  
Eric almost smiled. “That is a myth.”  
  
“Some myths have truth in them.” Godric sighed. Eric did not ask why, and they were silent for the rest of the night.


End file.
